"There are plenty who would agree with you, but at the moment the Terran Republic's policy of licensing unused space works in our favor. "I know you Terrans give your corporations a lot of freedom, but this is ridiculous." Why would anyone give up a place this beautiful? "Birthplace of stars and, as you might have guessed from the name, a licensed territory of Atlas Industrial." "The Atlas Emission Nebula," Rupert replied. "Where are we?" I asked, covering my eyes with my hand. The combined light was so bright my cameras darkened to compensate, but even my suit couldn't dim the glare of the giant, golden gas planet we were currently orbiting, its swirling cloud cover shining like a second sun in the reflected light of the twin star system behind us.
The sky outside the ship's tiny canopy was absolutely full of stars all crowded together against a rainbow of color that ranged from deep blue to brilliant pink. Surprisingly, it turned out to be worth the look. But though I'd had one of my best nights ever celebrating not being dead with Rupert back on Caldswell's Glorious Fool, a lot had changed since then, so I forced my eyes off Rupert's admittedly lovely back and settled them firmly on my surroundings.
At least, not yet, which was in itself nothing short of a miracle considering the events on Reaper's tribe ship and our subsequent crazy escape from the lelgis.
I might have been infected with a crazy plasmex plague and generally confused about my situation, but I wasn't dead. I'll admit I was a little disappointed I'd missed that. In the normal run of things, I would have counted waking up to an attractive man's smile as a plus, but my relationship with Rupert Charkov was a thorny, complicated mess at the moment, so I mumbled a hello and looked away, though not before I noticed that Rupert had shifted out of his symbiont scales and put on clothes while I was asleep. I glanced at my cameras to see Rupert smiling over his shoulder at me. Fortunately I had, so all I did was bang around a little.
I woke with a start, jumping so sharply I would have put a fist through something if I hadn't had the foresight to lock my suit. I've woken up in a lot of weird places in my life, but coming to in a xith'cal escape pod was pushing it even for me.
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